Stromboli

I absolutely detest the Americanisation of Italian food- a delicate and subtle cuisine has been obliterated and replaced with big plates of honking, brash sweet and salty foods with no creativity or fineness. Especially pizza, no delicate flavours, no thin crispy base, just as much cheese and silly toppings like steak as possible. However, this for once, cuts it. A rolled up pizza invented in New York that is simply divine.
As with any pizza, you can fill it how you want, these are just some of my favourite fillings. Try to go for ones that don't introduce too much moisture into the dough, such as mushrooms or lots of tomato sauce.
1)Combine 500g Italian '00' flour (of course you could use regular strong white bread flour, but I love the Italian stuff for pizza dough) plus 2 tsp salt, and here I use fine table salt as it dissolves easier into the dough. Add 1 tsp sugar and a 7g sachet of fast-action dry yeast, 40ml good olive oil and 300ml of regular cold tap water. Knead together to a dough, then knead vigorously for about 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Do this by hand or in a machine.
2)Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise at room temperature until doubled in size. About 2 hours.
3)Punch the dough down, like sinking your hands into just-slaughtered flesh, and leave to rest and relax for about 10 minutes. When it's had its time, transfer to a lightly oiled baking tin, fairly large and spread all to the corners. Be persistent and gentle and the dough will get there.
4)In a large frying pan cook about 5 rashers of smoked back bacon, nice and lean, until not crispy but well cooked, then deglaze the pan with a tbsp sherry vinegar.
5)Spread a few tbsp tomato puree all over the dough, excluding about an inch around the rim. Add the bacon, some grated sharp cheddar cheese, or any cheese you wanted, so handful of fresh rocket, then for seasoning a tsp of paprika, a drizzle of garlic oil, a tbsp dried oregano and the sherry vinegar.
6)Fold the two shorter sides of the stromboli in about an inch to seal, then roll the whole thing up from the longest side towards you. Have the seam at the bottom of the loaf. Cover with oiled clingfilm then prove again for another 45-60 minutes. Sometime within the proving time set the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
7)Remove the cling, and drizzle with more garlic oil, oregano and paprika. I added sesame seeds hoping for extra crunch, but that didn't materialise.
8)Bake for about 35 minutes in the oven, made steamy with some water or ice cubes at the bottom, until the crust is crisp and it sounds hollow all over when tapped.